PROLOGUE

he world is a big place. Many explorers during the Age of Discovery first set out to the seas thinking that the world existed on a flat plane. Just 500 years ago, astronomers believed that the universe revolved around the Earth. Until recently, we thought we were the only planet in the entire universe with the capability to support life. As we march forward through time, our understanding of our place in society, our place in the world, and our place in the universe evolves. We discover that there is a lot more to the world than what we can perceive.

The same holds true in the world of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. When we first entered the world of One Piece back in July 1997, we had limited knowledge of what existed of the world beyond the East Blue. We had no idea what the journey ahead would look like. Over the last eighteen years the world has grown exponentially. We have visited lands untouched by man in eons, ancient cities in the sky, islands of fishmen and mermen 30,000 feet below the surface, communities of giants and little people, human beings with unimaginable powers, and a world seemingly thrown into constant meteorological and political chaos.

As we stand in the One Piece world today, eighteen years after it began, we do not have all the knowledge necessary to put the pieces of the larger puzzle together. Just as we do not yet know if other planets indeed hold intelligent life, nor do we know the true meaning behind the birth of our universe, we also do not know what the One Piece is or why that world exists as it does. However, like everything in the universe is tied together by common elements and bonds, so is the One Piece world.

There are clues to these bonds all around us. Just because we do not know the answers to these great mysteries does not mean that the clues to solving them have not already been planted. Eiichiro Oda has already indicated that he has a much, much larger plan for the story. The problem is, we do not have the knowledge necessary to string everything together. Not yet, anyway. So, in an attempt to glimpse what picture these pieces weave, I’m going to try to bring as much insight and reason to the pieces that we do have, and we’ll leave it up to speculation and time to sort out the rest.

The story in One Piece exists in four layers. First, there are the immediate stories, which we often call story arcs. These include Baratie, Arlong Park, and Loguetown, for example. As Oda creates these stories he plants small details at the beginning that usually pay off at the end — usually around 20-40 chapters later.

Second, there are the larger stories, which many have called sagas. These sagas often encompass a series of story arcs leading to a major enemy or a major goal.  Examples of this would include the Baroque Works saga, which tell the story of Vivi’s adventure to her homeland and the defeat of Sir Crocodile.

Third, there are milestone stories. These kind of stories are hinted about throughout a major portion of the series. The best example we have of this are the events leading to the Paramount War, which are discussed at length in Volumes 25, 45, and 50 and then ultimately come to a fore in the Sabaody, Amazon Lily, Impel Down, and Marineford arcs. In these cases, Oda plants scenes and moments throughout a wide swath of the story laying the foundation for the events to come.

What I will be discussing here is even larger then that, it is the underlying story that stretches across the entire series. It is what the current One Piece editor